By Fatou Sillah
Gaye Sowe, a member of the Constitutional Review Commission that wrote the 2020 draft Constitution and Executive Director of the Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa, asserts that Gambia cannot adopt a new constitution if the United Democratic Party (UDP) and the National People’s Party (NPP) remain divided.
“I’m not even going into the merits because we all know what we have is very much watered down, but even if we agree that this is better than the 1997 constitution, which I don’t think it is, do we have the numbers? Because the last time the 2020 draft constitution was presented, nobody heard Mama Kandeh’s party say they were not in support, PDOIS were very much in support, and all the other parties were in support.
“So at the end of the day, we all know the problem is always the big two. What I am saying, in essence, is yes, watered down, Yes, yes, probably not what we are looking for, but even if it wasn’t watered down, like if it was the 2020 draft that was presented, do we have the numbers? There is absolutely no way we can have a new constitution if the two biggest political actors, in this case, the UDP and NPP, are on opposite sides. I’m not saying it’s the UDP’s or NPP’s fault, but the Gambia needs both parties to be on the same page before we can even dream of having a new constitution,” he said.
Sowe also emphasized that constitution-making is all about numbers, and the new draft requires three-quarters of the National Assembly Members’ votes before going to a referendum.
“Constitution-making is all about numbers. We already heard what the majority leader of the UDP said, saying they were not consulted and saying they are going to insist on the draft as it was in 2020. For those of us that are interested, all you need to do is look at Section 226 of the 1997 Constitution, which has an extremely high threshold.
“For us to have a new constitution, three quarters of the National Assembly members have to vote twice to endorse the new constitution, so it wasn’t about what we went through the first time, so that has to happen twice, and three quarters of all National Assembly members have to vote, and if they vote twice, three-quarters have to support the new constitution, then we have to go for a referendum. If we have to have a referendum to vote on the new constitution, 50 percent of registered voters have to vote, which means if in the Gambia we have a total of eight hundred thousand registered voters, four hundred thousand voters have to come out to vote,” he said.
He added, “Even if we have 49%, the constitution will not go through. And after not less than 50 % of us turn out to vote, 75% of the total number of voters have to vote YES. There is no way our president can look us in the eye and say I have 75% in the country. There is also no way that the UDP can tell us they have 75% support, so clearly we know the constitution is defeated even before it is submitted to the National Assembly when the two biggest political parties in the country are on different sides of the table,” he said.